The Argory was built between 1819 and 1824 by Walter McGeough, alias MacGeough, who assumed the additional name of Bond in 'affectionate regard to the family of his deceased grandmother' upon completion of the house. His decision to build a house here was influenced by his father's will. According to its terms only £400 a year was left to the eldest son William; the bulk of the fortune went to the younger son Walter and his three sisters. Rather curiously, the will stipulated that once Walter married he was no longer allowed to live at Drumsill, the family seat outside Armagh, so long as two of his sisters remained unwed. Although one sister died early, Walter judged correctly that the others would remain husbandless and therefore decided to build his own house on lands he had inherited at Derrycaw, overlooking the River Blackwater.

Armagh City, not too far from The Argory.

The commission for the new house went to two young Dublin-based architects, John and Arthur Williamson, almost certainly on the personal recommendation of Francis Johnson who was related to Walter's mother. Surprisingly little is known about the Williamsons, though it is clear from the style of their work at the Argory that they trained in Johnson's office. Most of the original plans and accounts relating to the building were lost in 1898 when a fire broke out in the octagonal pavilion, but it is known that the house was originally designed as a single block with the north wing added later. The Argory has imposing ashlar-faced elevations in a restrained classical style. The centre of its two-storey seven-bay west front breaks forward under a shallow pediment and contains a porch whose doorcase is framed by an elliptical arch and embellished with a squashed fanlight, glazed side panels and a lion's mask. This leads directly into the staircase hall, which once served as the front hall until the 1830s when the main entrance overlooking the river was shifted to the less exposed east side, where a small portico was added.

The staircase hall, or west hall, has been described as one of the most exciting interiors of its date in Ireland. It has a theatrical cantilevered staircase with brass banister supports, marbled walls, colza-oil lamp (converted to gas in 1906) and a large cast-iron stove surmounted by a replica of the Warwick vase. The original 1821 drawings of this stove survive; its flue descends beneath the floor to the drawing-room chimney. The room also has an almost life-size bronze cast of a mastiff, one of two bronzes of dogs which date from 1835 and are early examples of the work of the French animalier Charles Fratin.

The decorative scheme of the staircase hall with its marbled walls is continued upstairs in the organ gallery - a broad landing extending through the width of the house with tripartite 'Wyatt windows' at each end. Wilkie prints in ornate gilded frames hang at the staircase end, while at the other stands the very large cabinet barrel organ which is generally accepted as the most important of its kind in existence. This recently restored instrument was commissioned in 1822 from the London organ builder James Bishop; it originally had six barrels, Samuel Wesley being consulted in their selection, but now only three survive.

Perhaps the most attractive of the reception rooms at the Argory is the drawing-room, which lay shrouded in dust-sheets from 1939 until 1979. It was remodelled in the l89Os when the windows were lengthened and a small anteroom and cupboard were run into the room making it larger and brighter. The Carrara marble chimney-piece with baseless Doric columns is original, but most of the furnishing of this comfortable room is late nineteenth century. There are rich curtains and upholstery, copies of oId masters in gilt frames on the walls, a Steinway rosewood grand piano bought in 1898 and a workbox nearby ready for use. Other items include two pietro duro round tables which came from Drumsill in 1916, one of which is inlaid with butterflies and the other with the quartered coat of arms of MacGeough and Bond. The ormolu colza-lamp was converted to gas in 1906 when an acetylene gas plant was installed in the yard for £257 17s. 6d. - a sum which included all the fittings, such as the wall brackets each side of the overmantel mirror. The Argory has never been lit by electricity, though the National Trust installed carefully concealed power points when they took over the house in 1979.

On the other side of the staircase hall is the dining room. Much of its furniture was acquired from the Glasgow firm of cabinetmakers and upholsterers James Whyte and Son in 1827, notably the chairs around the long table - which is set with family china and silver for tea. Family portraits line the walls as is so often the case in Irish country house dining-rooms, while some of the accessories in the room include two round-topped tables in mahogany adjusted by a system of internal pulleys and two side-tables, beneath which stand plate buckets and a tea caddy; a warming cabinet sits to the left of the fireplace.

Across the central corridor from the dining-room lies the billiard room - a familiar feature of nineteenth century country houses, though it is rare to see one so well preserved as this. The room retains its original early nineteenth-century table by Burroughes & Watts as well as its early accessories, such as its scoreboard, level, cue stand and rests. The masculine feel of the room is emphasised by the warm appearance of the dado, which has been painted to resemble panelling, while the shutters have been grained to imitate walnut veneer. The other major reception room, the study, contains more family portraits, including a striking one of Walter McGeough by Sir Frederick Grant. This room, which continued to be regularly used by W. A. N. MacGeough Bond until his recent death, reveals a cluttered and reposeful scene crammed with an assortment of family acquisitions spanning four generations.